Who was Jeffrey Epstein?
The NYT says he was “a relentless scammer, he abused expense accounts, engineered inside deals and demonstrated a remarkable knack for separating seemingly sophisticated investors and businessmen from their money. He started small, testing his tactics and seeing what he could get away with. His early successes laid the foundation for more ambitious ploys down the road. Again and again, he proved willing to operate on the edge of criminality and burn bridges in his pursuit of wealth and power.”
Much as I criticize the NYT for sanewashing the Felon of the United States, this shows what they (or any major outlet) can do when they set their minds to it. It’s not only informative, it shows how ineffective the system was at stopping Epstein. He lied about his resume to get a job at Bear Stearns; they found out, kept him on anyway. Hey, he had a lot of hustle, did it really matter? In fairness, who knew how much it would matter.
Paul Campos sees it as game recognizing game: Epstein, Bernie Madoff and similar men “simply stole money, and when they were successful at stealing money they impressed other thieves and the children of other thieves… who they then stole money from. Con men, all the way down. It’s enough to shake one’s faith in capitalism.” Or as Scott Lemieux puts it, “There are a lot of Bernie Madoffs out there — people whose cons aren’t remotely sophisticated, but who are able to get away with it for decades because their real talent is for talking rich people out of their money.” Case in point: Elizabeth Holmes.
It was after meeting Epstein that Alan Dershowitz wrote a column for the LA Times arguing the age of consent should be no higher than 15. Make of that coincidence what you will. He carefully fudges the difference between “teenagers having sex with each other” and “older men pressuring teenagers into sex.” I’m sure Dershowitz is not alone in his views; when states started raising the age of consent above 10 a century or so ago, there were lots of objections (what if some girl lied that she was old enough and then blackmailed the man?). But that’s no excuse.
And obviously lots of people were amused by Epstein’s taste for young girls (check out some of my past Epstein-tagged posts). I’m not surprised that even knowing Epstein was a convicted sex offender, the rich and powerful still hung out with him. Certainly the Felon of the United States was cool with it: “Mr. Trump does not stand accused of sexually abusing a minor. But over the course of his friendship with Mr. Epstein and beyond, he left a trail of alleged abuse and assault, many details of which began to surface publicly during his successful 2016 presidential campaign.” The details included constant crude discussions about women with Epstein and friendly competition over scoring with women.
Here’s a look at one organization that brought Epstein together with scientists and philosophers, well after he was known for statutory rape. David Brooks attended some of these dinners and recently wrote we should move on from the Epstein story. Though with Brooks it could easily be general discomfort with the way people look askance at the rich and powerful instead of looking up to them.
In other Epstein news:
Why the Biden administration didn’t release the Epstein files. Answer: it was an open investigation at the time.
Maxwell may live in a cushy low-security prison but she still wants out.
Dems in Congress are looking at legal action if the files don’t come out. Though apparently they are.
At Slacktivist, Fred Clark reminds us that even if someone was at an event with Epstein, that doesn’t mean They Knew. He cites an example from his own youth …
